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Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology) by George R. McGhee Jr is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology) about?

Charles Darwin famously concluded On the Origin of Species with a vision of "endless forms most beautiful" continually evolving. More than 150 years later many evolutionary biologists see not endless forms but the same, or very similar, forms evolving repeatedly in many independent species lineages. A porpoise's fishlike fins, for example, are not inherited from fish ancestors but are independently derived convergent traits. In this book, George McGhee describes the ubiquity of the phenomenon of convergent evolution and connects it directly to the concept of evolutionary constraint--the idea that the number of evolutionary pathways available to life are not endless, but quite limited. Convergent evolution occurs on all levels, from tiny organic molecules to entire ecosystems of species. McGhee demonstrates its ubiquity in animals, both herbivore and carnivore; in plants; in ecosystems; in molecules, including DNA, proteins, and enzymes; and even in minds, describing problem-solving

Who reads Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology)?

Author

George R. McGhee Jr

Publisher

The MIT Press

Published

2011

Language

EN

ISBN

9780262298872

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Science, Philosophy, Biology

Rating

3.58 / 5 (12 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14